The cricket is going on ... the fans are very much on full power, and it's actually really quite warm today... What's this summer stuff, I ask?! I'm having fun bouncing about on the fit ball thingy Decay got for me for my birthday ... I named the soft toy puppy "Oscar", but I haven't yet named the phone ...

I'ts been a pretty uneventful weekend... a nice change from the rest of December being all booked out with dinners and catching up and stuff... next up is the new years stuff... then visiting DK's parentals with my parentals as well ... it'll be next year by then ...

Anyways, have a link, courtesy of the Stirfry Ninja ...

Also, Birthday happies to Em! Yay!

A couple of posts back, I mentioned how Elspeth had an altercation with a mug of coffee... this sort of meant that although I could make calls, the receiving party couldn't really hear me ... which is kind of a problem when you're ringing up to talk to someone, right? Guess what the parentals got me for Christmas?! hee hee ... I think they might've been a bit sick of not being able to ring me on any phone ... This also ends the nightly must-charge-the-phone that I've been putting up with for the last few months ...

What else did the apparently big fat bloke wearing clothing entirely inappropriate for stereotypical Aussie weather bring? Actually, the furry suit thing would've been fairly appropriate for the climate we had @ DK's parental abode, but that's not the point) ... Um... way more than I thought I deserved, but then again I don't feel I deserve anything really ... Decay got me a lil mini remote control car ... hee hee it's cute! Not quite as cute as the puppy dog soft toy though (: He said ... took him more than two years before he resorted to clichéd gifty things ... and some CDs ... to study by: Sigur Rós and Beth Gibbons without the Portishead bit ... and a book by Robert Rankin to get me to read something other than textbooks (: hee hee (:

Yes, there was a pile of other stuff, but I'm not elaborating ... *grin* ... I think doing nothing for birthday would be a good thing ...

Argh... the thing for changing languages and timezones for the travelling types is proving to be a larger challenge than I thought ... will have to sit down and actually do a plugin for movable type ... my perl skills aren't there enough to tackle this by myself yet.

In other news, here's some people going trolley racing, and a game of balance ...

As of today, I am:

725,160,960 seconds
12,086,016 minutes
201,433.60 hours
8,393.07 days
1,199.01 weeks
275.74 months
22.98 (Earth) years
95.38 Mercurian years
37.30 Venusian years
12.22 Marsian Years
1.93 Jovian yars
0.78 Saturnian years
0.14 Neptunian years
0.09 Plutonian years

I have the following non-events to look forward to:

Date	Anniversary	Days left
Friday, 27 December 2002	8,400 days	7
Friday, 27 December 2002	1,200 weeks	7
Saturday, 28 December 2002	23 years	8
Tuesday, 28 January 2003	0.14 Neptunian years	39
Thursday, 13 February 2003	96 Mercurian years	55
Friday, 14 February 2003	730,000,000 seconds	56
Monday, 17 February 2003	0.093 Plutonian years	59
Monday, 28 April 2003	280 months	129
Monday, 26 May 2003	38 Venusian years	157
Friday, 10 October 2003	2 Jovian years	294
Friday, 12 December 2003	210,000 hours	357
Saturday, 31 January 2004	100 Mercurian years	407
Thursday, 10 June 2004	13 Martian years	538
Wednesday, 18 August 2004	9,000 days	607
Wednesday, 18 August 2004	40 Venusian years	607
Wednesday, 15 September 2004	13,000,000 minutes	635
Tuesday, 28 December 2004	300 months	739
Wednesday, 04 May 2005	800,000,000 seconds	866
Sunday, 21 June 2009	1 Saturnian year	2,375
Monday, 28 December 2009	30 years	2,565
Wednesday, 19 December 2012	0.2 Neptunian years	3,652
Wednesday, 19 March 2014	300,000 hours	4,107
Thursday, 10 August 2017	20 Martian years	5,347
Saturday, 06 January 2018	20,000,000 minutes	5,496
Friday, 27 April 2018	2,000 weeks	5,607
Saturday, 99 9999	100,000,000,000,000 Plutonian years	2,923,586

Now I can be forgotten on so many more days!

Got up bright and early to deliver the car to service place to have things done to it ... had the Decay drive me back to his place, and then we went to have a look at a rental property that may or may not be available since we found out the landlord has recently passed away ... what does this mean? Um... I'm housebound for the day ... which isn't all that different from most days anyway ...

Stumbled upon a site with linky things related to knitting ... I haven't knitted for at least 10 years ... grandma taught me how to when I was 7 or 8 ... during story time in primary school I used to pull out the needles and wool and knit my way through Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree, and the Wishing Chair (?)... I was thinking the other day about firing up the knitting thing again, but I'd forgotten how to cast on stitches ... no fear, animated gifs are here! Trust me to start thinking about knitting when the weather's just starting to think about being all hot and summery in the right season!

In other news, we managed not to weird out the Stirfry Ninja with dinner last night (: In other other news, I should get to fiddling around with B and Julie's sites... inspiration has hit! That, or I should grab some lunch first...

This weekend was packed full of Decay and Droidy sociableness.. . Thursday night Decay and I attempted to do a stereotypical date activity and see Die another Day at Crown, but the session we were aiming for was sold out when we got to the head of the ticket line ... so I just watched Decay play arcade games for a while ... There was the wall of Daytona, and the wall of DDR ...

Friday was spent running the Stirfry ninja about as per previous postage, and Saturday morning involved dragging Decay out of bed at a reasonable enough time to fit in about an hour of tennis before it got too hot ... I was trying to learn how to hit a single-handed backhand slice... cos I don't have one of those in my repertoire yet... but they're nowhere near as satisfying as hitting a two-handed topspin or flat backhand, or an attempted one-handed non-sliced backhand ...

During the tennis hit-up, some domesticated conversation occured, which involved considering starting a little herb garden so we can have basil and mint and lemongrass and chillies and stuff on call so the next time I wanna whip up a salad thingy, I can pick the herbs off the stalks instead of having to get expensive packaged fresh stuff from the local supermarket... this domesticatedness continued, when we traipsed to Moorabbin to go to Ikea, to have a look at bookshelves, wardrobes, and picture frames ... grabbed some nice-looking *frames* ... which were like those glasses frames where there isn't actually a frame... just the glass ... we used those for four of the pics from the photo shoot, because they were in need of some support to stop them warping while they're sitting around ...

Went to B's farewell thing at her place, then at the Clarendon Hotel, then over to Tall Shane's place for his farewell party...

Sunday? Drove to visit Decay's parentals and to hang/assemble the reindeer entourage, and came back with um... a real live ™ Christmas Tree and associated decoration ... which we were expected to have set up and ready for perusal by the parentals when they visit next... Here's one we prepared earlier:

We put this *make electricity do the on-and-off thing* plug (how's that coming from someone floating about in the elec eng department!?) in so the lights on the tree do the flashy-flashy thing, and we tried to hang the ornaments so they wouldn't fall off the ends of the branches... it's more of a problem with real trees than the manufactured from plastic and non-shiny tinsel variety... cos real trees don't tend to place little knobs conveniently where you want them ... We even ended up with four of the reindeer thingies for this tree... except they're silver, and not fired in a kiln ... cos if they were they'd melt and become a gloop of melty silvery plastic and not smell too nice ...

Now? Um... I think I need sleep ... and a job... and um... to learn all that stuff so I don't fail anymore subjects... and to be married to Decay ...

Did much running-around-itude this afternoon with the Stirfry Ninja ... got one of his english texts, went to three libraries, got a parking permit for the car to cover both Decay's car and the one I'm driving ... went to The Glen Shopping Centre and shouted the Stirfry Ninja and myself a bubble tea... mmm yummy (: I had a peach iced tea with tapioca pearls (the bubble bit of the bubble tea), and the dude had um... something with grass jelly in it ... the stall/store at The Glen didn't have intimidating people staffing so it was all good ... they're a bit too expensive to get addicted to though... $3.50 a pop would send me broke quite quickly!

Also booked the car in for a much needed service ... told the person on the other end that the suspension needed looking at because it was um... weird. The Stirfry Ninja is over for dinner with Decay and me on Monday night, which is when we'll be fixing up his computer ... yay ! Um.. what else did we do? Oh yeah, completely forgot that there was cricket to watch today... actually, it's still on ... in the background while Decay's playing Battlefield 1942, and I'm working my way through a textbook ... shuddup! I'm trying to make sure I don't fail this subject again or I'll get kicked out!

Got a postcard from Em last week, hee hee kewl cartoon bee! Last weekend involved much going out-itude, this weekend's going to be more of the same... tomorrow night we have both B and Tall Shane's farewell bashes, so we'll be doing a bit of party-hopping ... Sunday afternoon has been decreed the "Hang up the reindeer" day over at Decay's parents' place...

One of these weekends we'll actually get to do lots of not much ... but by then it'll be Christmas already ... argh! Have a look at more weird computers while you're floating about ...

That all Wednesdays have the possibility of being interview day for Droidy ... I was woken up this morning by the sound of an Elspeth ringing ... to find that someone wanted to interview me ... see ? The concept of napping to wait for phonecalls works! Except that this wasn't really a nap, but a sleep ... I feel a bit bad that I couldn't hide my *I just woke up* voice very well though, but the interview is at 2pm ... aaiieee ! More nerve-wracking jitteriness! It does make me feel a little better that all this applying for jobs stuff might actually turn into a job one day though ... then again I haven't really been at it for very long - only about 5 weeks - so am I getting a distorted view of reality here?

Mmm.... toast for lunch ... don't you just love it when you're too uninspired to think up anything else that might work for lunch? Last night we went to "Good Morning Vietnam" for dinner, and it was quite yummy, if a little disorganised... methinks they stuffed up our order at the end, but I don't know what was actually ordered so I can't be sure. But the last two dishes were almost identical ... just one of them had land-based animals in it as well as the swimmy swimmy ones... the mother thought she'd ordered something with crispy egg noodles ... and slippery rice noodles do not look very much like something that might be crispy in this lifetime... I do like their lemon beef salad though ... spicy and hot and flavoury and green ... yummy (:

Now I gotta go look up where some parking is near where this interview is being held... I'm not driving to Port Melbourne this time... so I might be more likely to drive back the same way I got there, or at least have some ideas on which streets to try (:

Update: Interview happened. It wasn't really an interview... but argh ... it's not really what I thought it would be. My brain tells me to ring back, my gut feeling says don't bother. Elspeth's playing up so the whole ringing back thing might be an exercise in frustration, so I'll go with the gut feeling for now... ok?

Droidy is being held for ransom !

*giggle*, not really, I just thought the thingy was pretty kewl ... for those marketing types/frustrated art critics out there, here's something to make your life easier/harder/more confusing? I'm pretty sure I've linked this one before, but I still think it's pretty kewl ... pianographique, make some noise/music/something with weird visuals...

I've discovered the best way to wait for a phonecall of any sort is to take a nap... today I got the call back from the people I was interviewed by on Wednesday, saying that they offered the job to someone else, but if that didn't work out during her two days orientation next week, I was a walk-in start because I had more experience... While I didn't get the job, it's kinda nice to have that kind of feedback ... I know I didn't say anything in my resume or during the interview that I can't do, and I may have underestimated what I've done before... but the people there were really nice, and the other person got the pick because they were looking for a career in that direction, whereas my interests (while I might have been office droidy for a long long time already) don't like quite in that area.

I'm sitting in a mostly toasty warm bed, but I'll have to vacate it so I can save the growling stomach of Decay (: And probably mine also, at some point ...

... I'd just finished organising details for a dinner out with my uni friends for Friday night, when an SMS came through ... thinking... oh dear here come the questions... It wasn't a 20 questions SMS from anyone intending to go dinnering on Friday, it was uni results ... um... *shriek* I passed everything! But wait, there's more, because I got an HD for one of my subjects too! *hock!* *shorror!* The H bit of the HD goes to Decay though - I got a lot of help from him with regards to the best way to do the pracs with the least amount of stress ... he suggested that he wear an H on his forehead for the occasion ... yes Rimmer! I didn't go quite as well as I wanted to for one of my subjects but I've been told that the lecturer is a really tough marker in exams so don't expect too much... but the rest... yay! I passed everything!

In other news, the interview yesterday seemed to go ok ... I was first to be interviewed, but it sort of felt like they didn't know what to ask or tell me, and I know I should ask questions but my brain went a bit blank ... I'm still hopeful though ... still went and applied for a few other jobs though ... I find out tomorrow if yesterday's interview went ok enough that I got the job, but I'm still hopeful that I might be able to swing a couple of jobs over the break ...

Speaking of work, I'm going into work at the parentals today, clearing out upstairs, and/or designing a database to replace their current one (which is um... stuffed). It's kind of like ... well she might be working for someone else in the near future we'd better get her to do stuff now before she scoots off (:

Meanwhile, have fun telling your arse from your elbow, and ... now you can have a talkie toaster! Awww.... it's cute (: And while we're at it, some toilet humour ... or something.

I'll scoot off to work now ...

What's today? It's Wednesday, and I have a job interview to freak out for. It's for a position where I can do everything listed in the job description, which is stuff I've pretty much been doing in the time I've been working at the parentals' business, just a different context. However, it's freaking me out because this is pretty much the first time I've ever had to go for an interview. I know what I have to do in theory, but I've never had to put it into practice ... other jobs that I've taken on were pre-arranged and through word-of-mouth, and I've known at least one person at the place beforehand ...

Mum and I were talking about the position description at the bright and early time of 7:30am, and she was happy that I at least got to the interview stage of a job application. She knows I can do the job, and she's happy that I'm out applying for stuff to do - it can never hurt to build up your experience. Even though this position isn't in my area of studies at uni, it's something I can do, and hopefully it'll be good for me (:

Meanwhile, I'd better run off and um... get my shoes (: And figure out how to get there ...

What is your mental profile?
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Yeah well, it's Monday, and I'll post if I want to? Mmm... tennis tonight but the threat of rain ... no cricket to watch cos it finished itself in three days...

Last night, Decay and I had B, Jules, and Glenn over for dinner ... they also brought over a birthday present for me, 27 days too early (: Which is entirely understandable, since B's leaving soon for her trip ... Thanks guys... we now got square plates and fishy plates! They're really kewl... We were going to take photos of the people and the food, for Em's benefit, but the digital camera's batteries were really quite flat...

So that Em, or anyone else for that matter, can recreate this experience for themselves, this is what we had last night:

Starters: -- we bought these from the local asian grocer ... we're not that good!

• Vegetable Samosas


• Chicken Spring Rolls


• Decay and Droidy's Dipping Sauce

Mains:

• Char Siu - from the Chinese restaurant next to the local asian grocer ...


• <the street that Decay lives in> chicken


• Variation on Decay and Droidy's Stirfry Vegies with noodles


• Droidy's "I don't know what I'm doing so I'll throw something together and hope it works" thai-style salad

Dessert:
This bit kindly provided by Jules ...

• Toblerone Mousse

Midnight Snack:
This bit kindly provided by B and Glenn after their stint in the Bakery earlier that day...

• Doughnuts... mmm ... forbidden doughnut...

Now, hopefully in the time it takes for me to do my recipe typing, I don't accidentally close the browser window ... I know I should do this in another text-editor, but I'm being lazy today... I'll trust my spelling for the time being ... (:

Ok ... here goes:

Samosas and Spring Rolls, Char siu

I trust you can go down to the shops and get these yourself? Or else be all creative and chef-like and make them yourselves (;

Decay and Droidy's Dipping Sauce

• Soy Sauce
• White Vinegar - if you have rice wine vinegar, use that...
• White Sugar
• Chilli Flakes, or fresh chilli
• Spring onions, chopped finely (this is optional... I don't always have some to put in ...)

Method
In a container (I leave the choice to you whether it should be a tall one or a bowl-like one...), mix one part vinegar to three parts soy sauce. Add some chilli - just a little bit if you want the colour, or a lot if you want some fiery stuff... For every shot-glass or so worth of dipping sauce, add about a teaspoon of sugar, or to taste. The final mix should be pretty balanced - not too sweet, or sour, or salty...

Next up ...

Decay and Droidy's Stirfry Vegies with noodles

• Yellow Egg Noodles, which come in bags of bunched swirls from your local asian grocer. Do not use maggi or other equivalent 2-minute noodles, or any noodles where they're all wavy and wriggly - the texture tends to be weird.
• Veggies - this time there was onion, carrot, spring onion. Well, that's all I remember cutting up ... (:
• An Omelette: 2 eggs, some salt and pepper
• Some assorted sauces... probably soy sauce and maybe some oyster sauce

Method
Same way as the original, just different/missing ingredients....

<the street that Decay lives in> chicken

I'll have to take a guess at what's in this cos I have no idea (: Besides the chicken bit...

• One chicken breast ... it was rather large ... sort of like the Pamela Anderson/Dolly Parton of chicken breasts ... Or maybe it was two chicken breasts ... I don't know... it froze around one of the rungs of the freezer shelf so defrosting was interesting.
• Char Siu Sauce - the particular brand we've picked seems to have a lot of garlic in it...
• Soy Sauce
• Honey
• Oyster Sauce
• Onion
• perhaps some other mystery ingredients... I don't know, you'll have to ask Decay

Method

Mix up stuff for your marinade - everything but the chicken and onion. I think it was about a spoonful of everything...

Chop up your chicken breast into bite-sized bits, and then put the chicken bits in a container with the marinade and mix it up a bit so none of the chicken bits feel left out ...

Chop your small onion (or half a fair-sized one) into strips, and sauté til they're sort of see-through. Add the chicken and marinade, and stir around til the chicken's cooked.

Place the cooked stuff onto a serving plate, and voilà, some chicken. Or something. (:

Droidy's "I don't know what I'm doing so I'll throw something together and hope it works" thai-style salad

Here we go ... let's see if I remember all of what I put into this salad thing ...

• Rice Vermicelli - about a handful - follow the instructions to cook them
• Fresh Mint leaves - a small handful. You can get small packs of these at supermarkets.
• Fresh Basil leaves - a small handful.
• Baby Spinach leaves
• Rocket leaves
• Lettuce
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Carrot
• Apple
• A lime or two
• White vinegar
• Brown Sugar
• Soy Sauce
• Sesame oil
• Fresh Chilli
• Peanuts
• Olive Oil
• Lemongrass shoot
• Salt and Pepper

Method

Get all your herby things (mint, basil, chilli, lemongrass) and chop them all up into strips. Put the chopped stuff in a bowl.

Get all your leafy things (rocket, spinach, lettuce) and chop these all up into strips too. Put this chopped stuff in a different bowl.

The dressing is made of lime juice, some vinegar (you wouldn't need vinegar if you could get enough juice from the limes - we only had one lime), brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and olive oil. Mix it all up and make it so that it's not too salty/sweet/sour ...

Get all your solid bits (tomato, carrot, apple, cucumber) and chop them up. I grated the carrot, but in hindsight I think that made the carrot disappear. Maybe making them into sticks, and the cucumber into rounds may have worked better?

Get your peanuts out... heat up a frypan, chuck some oil in ... add some salt and sesame oil to this hot pan, and then chuck in your peanuts... turn the heat down on this and shake the peanuts about til they're nice and golden toasty. Lay them out on a piece of paper towelling to absorb excess oil for a while...

To make the salad, mix the herbs into the dressing and let that sit for a while. Mix up all the chopped solid bits and leafy bits and rice vermicelli bits (which I should've snipped a few times cos the strands were a bit long...), then add your dressing and toss appropriately. Thow the peanuts over the top at the end...

Somehow this worked. Don't ask me to repeat it cos it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to reproduce it exactly!

Toblerone Mousse

• Julie
• The selected contents of Julie's kitchen

Method

Get Jules to whip up a batch for you! Serve with berries and more chocolate (:

Doughnuts

*Groan* ... what else can I say to explain the following? (:

• Some Dough ... possibly the monetary form, perhaps some sort of flour and liquid combination ...
• Some nuts - people or legumes... doesn't make much difference
• A bakery

Method
Work at a bakery all day and take home the leftover doughnuts (: